Ice machine with adjustable ice density

ABSTRACT

A machine to continuously produce and hold ice is provided. The machine includes a compressor, an evaporator, and an auger that rotates across an outer surface of the evaporator to scrape ice forming thereon. Ice slices travel with auger rotation and neighboring ice slices coalesce together to form larger pieces of ice. A user input allows adjustment of the density of the ice produced. The controller alters compressor speed, such that a decrease in compressor speed results in an increase in the surface temperature of the evaporator and therefore slows down ice formation thereon, and an increase in compressor speed results in a decrease in the surface temperature of the evaporator and therefore speeds up the ice formation thereon. A change in ice formation speed results in a corresponding change in the rate of ice slice production and a corresponding change in density of ice produced by the machine.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/802,015, filed on Feb. 6, 2019, and from U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/748,612, filed on Oct. 22, 2018, the entirety of which are each hereby fully incorporated by reference herein.

BACKGROUND

This disclosure relates to ice makers that continuously make ice for storage and use. It is often desired by users to have ice that is chipped or shaved or soft based upon the tactile benefit of that type of ice or for benefits in use of ice that is less dense that traditional ice cubes for various purposes. Often refrigerator/freezers provide a setting mechanically shave or break up cubed ice as the ice is dispensed. It is desired for an ice maker to be capable of forming ice that is less dense than traditional cubed ice, such as to have large volume of this type of ice or to avoid the noise associated with mechanical shaving or breaking up cubed ice.

BRIEF SUMMARY

A representative embodiment of the disclosure is provided. The embodiment includes an ice machine. The ice machine includes a housing that provides an insulated environment for storing ice produced by the ice machine and an ice production system. The ice production system comprises an evaporator, a compressor, and an auger, with a reservoir surrounding at least a portion of an outer surface of the evaporator. A connection to receive water within the reservoir such that the water in contact with the evaporator freezes. The auger is configured scrape ice from the surface of the evaporator when the auger rotates. The compressor is configured with a variable speed, wherein an increase in the speed of the compressor decreases a temperature of the surface of the evaporator (which may be the inner surface or the outer surface) and a decrease in the speed of the compressor increases the temperature of the outer surface of the evaporator. As the temperature of the surface of the evaporator increases, the rate of ice formation upon the surface of the evaporator decreases, and as the temperature of the surface of the evaporator decreases the rate of ice formation upon the surface of the evaporator increases. An increase in the rate of ice formation upon the surface of the evaporator increases the volume of ice per unit time scrapped off of the surface of the evaporator by rotating auger, and a decrease in the rate of ice formation upon the surface of the evaporator decreases the volume of ice per unit time scrapped off of the surface of the evaporator by the rotating auger. As the volume of ice per unit time scrapped off of the evaporator changes, the density of scrapped ice that is moved through and out of the auger changes such that an increase in the volume of ice per unit time results in an increase in density of ice expelled by the rotating auger, and a decrease in the volume of ice per unit time results in a decrease in density of ice expelled by the rotating auger. The ice machine further comprises a controller and a user input device, wherein the user input device is configured to receive an input from a user related to the desired density of the ice expelled by the auger, and wherein the controller adjusts the speed of the compressor based upon the desired ice density.

Advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description of the preferred embodiments of the disclosure that have been shown and described by way of illustration. As will be realized, the disclosed subject matter is capable of other and different embodiments, and its details are capable of modification in various respects. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of an ice production system of an ice machine, showing the compressor of the ice production system schematically and the controller schematically, cut from section Z-Z of FIG. 2.

FIG. 2 is a top view of the ice production system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the ice production system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is side view of the production system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the ice production system of FIG. 1 with the auger removed from the evaporator.

FIG. 6 is a perspective of the ice machine with the ice production system with the door in an open position.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS AND THE PRESENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Turning now to FIGS. 1-6 an ice machine 10 is provided. The ice machine 10 includes a housing 20 that provides an insulated environment for storing ice. The ice machine 10 may be enclosed by a single door 12 or multiple doors. The ice machine 10 includes a storage bin 22 that is configured to receive ice produced by an ice production system 30, which is disposed within the housing 20. The storage bin 22 may be directly accessible by a user when the door is opened to allow for ice within the bin to be easily removed. In some embodiments, the door 12 may include an ice dispensing system (not shown) mounted thereon to allow ice to be removed from the bin 22 without needing to open the door 12.

The ice machine 10 may include a high level switch or sensor that senses (mechanically, electrically or otherwise) when the volume of ice disposed within the bin 22 has reached a predetermined level. In some embodiments where the level is mechanically sensed (such as by the ice within the bin at a certain level physically moving a bar or the like), the mechanical system may close a valve 70 in the inlet water line 72 (FIG. 3 with water flowing into the reservoir 60 in direction Y) to prevent water from entering into the ice production system 30 (discussed in detail below). In other embodiments, the ice level sensor (mechanical or otherwise) may feed a signal to a controller 1000, which controls the position of the valve 70 or otherwise prevents water from flowing into the ice production system 30. In some embodiments the controller 1000 would stop operation of the auger 50 and the compressor 42, which would discontinue forming ice slices 2001 (as discussed above) and removing ice slices 2001, therefore discontinuing the production of ice and therefore eliminating the need for water to be reintroduced into the reservoir 60 and evaporator 40.

The ice production system 30 includes an evaporator 40, a compressor 42 (shown schematically in FIG. 1), an auger 50, and associated further components that are well known to those of ordinary skill in the art to establish a refrigerated/freezing environment to make ice, and associated piping 102 to allow refrigerant flow through the compressor 42, the evaporator 40, a condenser (not shown) to establish the refrigeration cycle and to establish a cold surface 41 upon the evaporator 40, which upon contact with water causes the water to freeze. Refrigerant flows through piping 102 between the compressor 42 and the evaporator 40 (and other well-known components of the refrigeration cycle suitable for making ice). In some embodiments an expansion valve is further provided within the ice production system 30.

A reservoir 60 is provided and is located directly above/mounted to the evaporator 40, and specifically to hold water (4, FIG. 1) that is introduced therein to freeze when in contact with a surface 41 of the evaporator 40. The water from the reservoir 60 may flow into the evaporator through a port 80 via path P (FIG. 1). In some embodiments, the evaporator is maintained fully of water (and ice slices 2001, discussed below) and as ice formed by coalesced ice slices (2001, discussed below) leave through the tube 90 additional water is allowed to flow into the evaporator through the port 80 (either due to gravity, or in other embodiments a level sensor within the evaporator, which operates to open and shut a valve to allow or prevent flow through the port 80 and into the evaporator). The port 80 is best shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, although the connection between the port 80 and the reservoir 60 is not show in these figures, the connection would be visible in a different cross-sectional view, shown with a potential cross-section X-X in FIG. 2.

In some embodiments, an auger 50 includes blades that surround an outer surface of the evaporator, which is the surface held cold to form ice thereon. In other embodiments as depicted in FIG. 3, evaporator 40 is a tube, and the inner surface 41 a of the evaporator is held cold to form ice thereon, and the outer edge 54 a of the threaded portion 54 auger 50 scrapes against the inner surface 41 a, as discussed below. In embodiments where the evaporator 40 is a tube, the inner surface 41 a (or wall) is the wall forming the lumen 58 of the tube that faces into the void of the lumen and the outer surface/wall is defined as the wall that extends around the outer circumference of the tubular evaporator and faces away from the evaporator.

Water that flows through a valve 70 is held within the lumen 58 of the evaporator so that a portion of the water within the reservoir 60 is in contact with the surface 41 a that is maintained cold. In some embodiments, the auger 50 is disposed within the evaporator 40 such that the helical extending threaded portion contacts the inner surface 41 a of the evaporator to scrape ice slices 2001 therefrom (shown schematically in FIG. 1). In embodiments where the auger 50 surrounds the evaporator 40, the auger includes blades that scrape along the outer surface of the evaporator to remove ice slices.

As shown schematically in FIG. 1, the compressor 42 is fluidly connected to the evaporator 40 (and other components of the refrigeration system) such that refrigerant moves therebetween during the refrigeration cycle. Operation of the compressor 42 may be controlled by the controller 1000, such as to change the speed of the compressor, the duty cycle of the compressor 42 and/or to change other operational aspects of the compressor 42. In some embodiments as discussed in detail below, the speed of the compressor 42 is adjusted by the controller 1000 in order to control the rate of refrigerant that flows through the evaporator 40 and therefore indirectly controls the temperature of the surface 41 a (in embodiments depicted in the figures the inner surface of a tubular evaporator, but could in other embodiments be the outer surface of the evaporator). Accordingly, the surface temperature of the evaporator 40 is proportional to the speed that water in contact with the surface 41 a freezes. For example, a decrease in temperature of the surface 41 a will result in water in contact with the surface 41 a freezing in a faster rate and therefore the volume of ice formed upon the surface 41 a per unit time increases, and similarly, an increase in the temperature of the surface 41 a will result in water in contact with the surface 41 a freezing in a slower manner and therefore the volume of ice formed upon the surface 41 a per unit time decreases. In embodiments where the auger 50 rotates at a constant speed, the rate of ice per unit time scrapped off of the evaporator changes directly based upon the speed of the compressor 42 (and specifically assuming that the temperature of the water flowing into the reservoir 60 is constant).

As ice is scrapped off of the surface 41 a of the evaporator, the scrapped ice normally is in the form of thin slices 2001. The rotation of the screw thread 54 of the auger 50 urge the ice slices 2001 toward the proximal end portion 52 in the direction T (FIG. 1), and motion of the ice slices 2001 cause ice slices to contact each other and due to a wet outer surface of the ice slices 2001 (and the pressure within the auger due to the continuous formation of ice slices within the fixed internal volume of the auger 50), a plurality of the ice slices 2001 tend to coalesce (through freezing) together as they move along the auger, which forms larger pieces of ice with continued motion through the auger 50.

Because the rate of ice formation upon the surface 41 a of the evaporator 40 is proportional to the compressor 42 speed, the density of ice slices 2001 (and the amount of water initially entering) within the auger 50 changes with the change compressor 42 speed. Accordingly, as can be understood, an increase in compressor speed ultimately causes an increase in density of ice slices 2001 exiting the auger, which therefore causes an increase in volume per unit time of ice pellets or blocks that reach the proximal end portion 52 of the auger 50, and travel into the bin 22 and therefore the density of the coalesced ice that leaves the auger 50 and reaches the bin 22. Similarly a decrease in compressor 42 speed results in a decrease in density of ice pellets or blocks that reach the proximal end portion 52 of the auger 50 and travel into the bin 22 via the outlet tube 90.

In some embodiments, the auger 50 rotates at a constant speed, so that the density of ice leaving the auger 50 is proportional to the speed of the compressor 42, as operated by the controller 1000. In other embodiments, the rotational speed of the auger 50 may also be adjustable by the controller 1000, which allows for a fine tuning of the size of the ice pieces that leave the auger into the bin 22. As can be understood a slower rotation of the auger 50 slows the flow of ice 2001 through the auger from the distal end portion 51 (when the ice slices 2001 are removed from the evaporator) to the proximal end portion 52 where the ice, which provides more time for neighboring ice slices to stick together within the auger due to their contact and the pressure within the auger 50. Conversely, a faster spinning auger 50 will move the ice slices 2001 more quickly through the auger 50 therefore reducing the time available for neighboring ice slices 2001 to stick together.

The auger 50 may be rotated by a motor 59, based upon a signal or a command from the controller. The motor 59 may be a gear motor or another motor that can provide a constant rotational speed of the auger 50 with varying torque or resistance. In some embodiments, as discussed above, the motor may be capable of rotating the auger 50 at a varying speed as controlled by the controller 1000.

In some embodiments, the housing 20 supports and encloses a portion of the auger 50, such as fully or partially encloses the auger 50, and includes an opening (not shown, but would be seen in a cross-sectional view of the section Y-Y shown no FIG. 2) that allows ice from the proximal end portion 52 of the auger 50 leave the auger 50 and enter into the bin 22 for storage. In other embodiments, the auger 50 is fully encapsulated within the tubular evaporator 40 and the ice produced extends from an aperture at the proximal end 52 of the auger 50 and at an end of the evaporator 40. In some embodiments, a tube 90 extends between the proximal end portion 52 of the auger 50 and the bin 22 to allow ice to flow from the auger to the bin 22 through the tube 90.

The ice machine 10 may further include a user input device 300, which may include an input device that allows the user to select a desired density of ice to be produced by the ice machine. The user input device 300 may allow the user to select between low density ice and very dense ice and a plurality of ice densities therebetween. The density may be measured by the quality of the ice produced by the ice production system 30 which enters the bin. The term quality is defined as the amount of solid ice divided by the total mass of water and ice per unit volume (either as a decimal or referenced as a percent quality), where totally liquid water is 0 and totally solid ice is 1.0 or 100%). The quality of the ice entering the bin 22 may be adjustable by the user and may vary from about 50% quality to about 85% quality inclusive of all values therebetween. The term about is defined herein to include the reference value and plus or minus 5% of the reference value (e.g. about 50% includes the range of 45% to 55%). In some embodiments, the user may select from several quality values, such as about 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%. One or ordinary skill in the art will understand that the ice quality produced by the ice product system is based upon several factors that may vary and therefore the ice production system may not be capable of providing the exact desired quality, but may be capable of being operated at various different qualities that are at known differences (with the specific quality not being predetermined). The variables may include ambient temperature and water temperature entering into the reservoir 60.

The user input device 300 may be an analog dial that the user rotates to select the desired ice density based upon a calibrated knob positions (as read by the user) or alternatively the user input device 300 may be a digital input that allows the user to select a desired density (quality), either within a range of available densities, or by selecting between a plurality of specific pre-set densities. The user input device 300 sends a signal to the controller 1000 indicative of the desired density. The controller 1000 then based upon its calibration, controls the operation (such as speed, or duty cycle, or another operational parameter) of the compressor 42 to establish a temperature of the outer surface 41 of the evaporator 40 to establish the desired ice density. In some embodiments, the controller 1000 operates the compressor with a specific different compressor 42 speed for each possible specific density as available to be selected by the user.

While the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure have been described, it should be understood that the invention is not so limited and modifications may be made without departing from the disclosure. The scope of the disclosure is defined by the appended claims, and all devices that come within the meaning of the claims, either literally or by equivalence, are intended to be embraced therein. 

1. An ice machine, comprising: a housing that provides an insulated environment for storing ice produced by the ice machine and an ice production system, the ice production system comprises an evaporator, a compressor, and an auger, with a reservoir surrounding at least a portion of the evaporator; a connection to receive water within the reservoir such that the water in contact with the evaporator freezes; the auger is configured scrape ice from a surface of the evaporator when the auger rotates, the compressor is configured with a variable speed, wherein an increase in the speed of the compressor decreases a temperature of the surface of the evaporator and a decrease in the speed of the compressor increases the temperature of the surface of the evaporator, wherein as the temperature of the surface of the evaporator increases, the rate of ice formation upon the surface of the evaporator decreases, and as the temperature of the surface of the evaporator decreases the rate of ice formation upon the surface of the evaporator increases, wherein an increase in the rate of ice formation upon the surface of the evaporator increases the volume of ice per unit time scrapped off of the surface of the evaporator by rotating auger, and a decrease in the rate of ice formation upon the surface of the evaporator decreases the volume of ice per unit time scrapped off of the surface of the evaporator by the rotating auger, wherein as the volume of ice per unit time scrapped off of the evaporator changes, the density of scrapped ice that is moved through and out of the auger changes such that an increase in the volume of ice per unit time results in an increase in density of ice expelled by the rotating auger, and a decrease in the volume of ice per unit time results in a decrease in density of ice expelled by the rotating auger, further comprising a controller and a user input device, wherein the user input device is configured to receive an input from a user related to the desired density of the ice expelled by the auger, and wherein the controller adjusts the speed of the compressor based upon the desired ice density.
 2. The ice machine of claim 1, wherein the auger operates with a constant rotational speed.
 3. The ice machine of claim 1, wherein the auger is capable of operating with a variable rotational speed, wherein a rotational speed of the auger is controlled by the controller.
 4. The ice machine of claim 1, wherein the evaporator is cylindrical and the auger interacts with the cylindrical surface of the evaporator when the auger rotates.
 5. The ice machine of claim 1, wherein the evaporator is tubular, and the surface is an inner surface of the evaporator, such that the auger interacts with the inner surface of the evaporator when the auger rotates.
 6. The ice machine of claim 1, wherein a rotation of the auger results chips of ice being removed from the surface of the evaporator, wherein the removed chips of ice are urged through the auger and away from the surface of the evaporator, and wherein neighboring ice chips in contact with each other coalesce into larger pieces of ice as the ice chips move toward a proximal end portion of the auger.
 7. The ice machine of claim 1, wherein the evaporator encloses the auger, wherein the evaporator comprises an opening proximate to a proximal end portion of the auger wherein ice reaching the proximal end portion of the auger travels through the opening and exits the auger.
 8. The ice machine of claim 7, wherein the housing further comprises a bin, wherein ice that travels through the opening and exits the auger enters into the bin.
 9. The ice machine of claim 1, wherein the user input device is configured to receive a plurality of specific inputs for desired ice quality within a range of low quality ice to high quality ice and a plurality of different ice qualities therebetween, and wherein the controller provides for a specific different compressor speed for each discrete input of desired ice quality.
 10. The ice machine of claim 9 wherein the user input device allows for the user to select a desired specific density of ice and the controller accordingly adjusts the speed of the compressor based upon the user selected specific density.
 11. The ice machine of claim 8, further comprising a tube that extends between the proximal end portion of the auger and the bin to direct ice from the auger into the bin.
 12. The ice machine of claim 9, wherein the user input device is configured to cause the controller to operate the compressor to establish ice quality at a desired quality within the range of about 50% to about 85%.
 13. The ice machine of claim 12, wherein the user input device is configured to cause the controller to operate the compressor to establish ice qualities of about 50%, about 60%, about 70%, and about 80%.
 14. The ice machine of claim 9, wherein the controller is configured to operate the compressor at different speeds to establish a plurality of different qualities of ice between a range of about 50% to about 85%. 